Feeddler RSS Reader iPad App

As my primarily use my iPad consume all the media my eyes can handle – Feeddler RSS Reader is the best free iPad app available for keeping up with RSS feeds and subscriptions. Feeddler is a Google Reader client that syncs and downloads your feeds from Google and aggregates them into a simple iPad interface for your access.

After syncing to your Google RSS Reader account, Feeddler aggregates the latest feeds into categorized folders that you can either browse by website or altogether. Similar to the features you have on the Google Reader website, you can star your favorite articles, share articles via email/Facebook/Twitter, and also read articles your friends have shared.

Feeddler has become much smoother and quicker since the latest version 1.3 update. Every time you move between feed folders and articles, the Feeddler app does an online sync and takes a little bit of time to download. For some users that have left comments on the iTunes store, the lag is too much to bear. But overall, it only takes a few seconds over my home WiFi network for Feeddler to grab the latest updates and I haven’t found the lag to be too cumbersome.

For the most part, Feeddler displays article excerpts, and clicking to expand will open an in-app Safari browser that lets you read the full posting in browser form. Since the full articles appear in a browser, this takes more time to load versus straight plain text RSS feed reading. However, by opening articles within the browser, this allows you access to rich media such as YouTube clips that often find their way into online articles these days.

Do keep in mind that to use Feeddler, you will have to supply your Google Account login information. There’s potential security risks for providing third party developer applications with your Google Account – especially an account that links to your email, web site analytics, YouTube, and various other Google services. For my own reader, I created a new Google account and decided to sync my feeds from my new dummy account rather than supplying my master account information. You can never be too safe in this world of internet piracy. I would advise you to do the same just in case anything fishy ever goes on.

With that said, Feeddler RSS Reader is an absolute essential app for all iPad users. While the app has a few kinks, depending who you ask, slow syncing and occasional crash led us to give Feeddler an 3.5/5 rating with a potential to be a 4.

Download the app from the App Store today and start following your favorite feeds iPad style.